International Day of the Midwife celebrated

By
By HOLLY MONERY

MIDWIVES are pillars of our community who support women and their families bring new lives into the world.

Today marks the International Day of the Midwife, a day used to promote the role of midwives and midwifery around the world.

The THO-North West Antenatal and Outreach Maternity Service is dedicated to serving the needs of women in remote locations on the Coast.

The service has five midwives based at Smithton, four on the West Coast and one on King Island.

Antenatal service and midwifery outreach co- ordinator Mandy Gleeson said it was important to offer flexible healthcare to suit women's needs at the outreach sites.

"The aim is to provide access to high quality, safe maternity care as close to where the woman is as possible, and that care needs to reflect the needs of the women individually," Ms Gleeson said.

"The women in rural areas are less able to access services for pregnancy and postnatal care for a variety of reasons. They find it hard to travel regularly for clinics and the local midwives understand the local services and needs of the family."

Ms Gleeson said the service allowed a bond to be created with patients and their midwives.

"It's important because women often in remote sites are excluded from a midwifery continuity of care model and these models have been identified as being highly sought after by women and are shown to have better outcomes for women and babies," she said.

The service started as the Medical Specialist Outreach Assistance Program in 2007 with monthly obstetrics and gynaecology clinics at Smithton and the West Coast. In 2011, funding was increased to include King Island, and funding for midwifery clinics and postnatal support of mothers and babies.

Last year the service became the Antenatal and Outreach Maternity Service with funding from the Department of Health's Rural Health Outreach Fund

Ms Gleeson said the service was a collaborative model between the women's GPs, an obstetrician and senior midwives from the hospital.